What exactly is the purpose of the separation of powers? Some two hundred and twenty-seven odd years ago, it was the security deposit we set down on republicanism. The division of authority in government, setting branches against one another in a healthy tug of war, all while being made to mind the inclination of the voter, was the safety valve of a healthy republic. No I’m not talking about democracy, which is really the overly lauded majoritarianism of rent-seekers and ideologues, but instead I’m speaking to the necessary requirements of republicanism. Republicanism is really the model for governmental efficiency, and the optimal scheme for protecting and enlarging the sphere of liberty and opportunity that all citizens can come to enjoy.
Congress has an important part to play in this republic, especially considering that the most direct outlet of republicanism is the expression of the people’s general will through their representatives, and that this representation is the only direct and legitimate method of checking the power of bureaucratic rent-seekers and executive-branch abusers.
F.H. Buckley, an academic from the law school at George Mason University, the institution that has famously economized on costs while still hiring luminaries such as Gordon Tullock and Nobel laureate James Buchanan, wrote a masterpiece titled The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America, warning of the enlargement of both the far-reaching powers of the administrative state and the aggrandizement of executive power. While there have been more than enough book reviews of Buckley’s more recent work, I use the book more as a commendable reference guide and legally-minded review of the recent abuses and trends of the anti-representative age.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/04/our_impotent_congress_.html
Congress has an important part to play in this republic, especially considering that the most direct outlet of republicanism is the expression of the people’s general will through their representatives, and that this representation is the only direct and legitimate method of checking the power of bureaucratic rent-seekers and executive-branch abusers.
F.H. Buckley, an academic from the law school at George Mason University, the institution that has famously economized on costs while still hiring luminaries such as Gordon Tullock and Nobel laureate James Buchanan, wrote a masterpiece titled The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America, warning of the enlargement of both the far-reaching powers of the administrative state and the aggrandizement of executive power. While there have been more than enough book reviews of Buckley’s more recent work, I use the book more as a commendable reference guide and legally-minded review of the recent abuses and trends of the anti-representative age.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/04/our_impotent_congress_.html
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